British Intelligence has finally caught up to Harold Cole.
They burst into the traitor’s apartment and arrest him. But what do they do now?
The agents throw Cole into the bathroom and lock the door until they can decide his fate.
He is too dangerous to keep alive; he will be executed for treason.
When they open the bathroom door, it is empty. The window is open, and Cole is on the run once again.
What did Harold Cole do? Why was Mi6, Mi5, and officers in the British army after him?
Harold Cole was tied up in petty crime his whole life. When World War II broke out,
he enlisted in the British Army and was shipped off to fight in France. Cole had developed some
unique skills as a young criminal like telling convincing lies and sneaking around undetected.
He used these skills to rescue allies from behind enemy lines, and get them back to safety.
In fact, Harold Cole became somewhat of a hero. He saved hundreds of lives by operating
behind enemy lines in France. He would bring POWs back to Allied controlled territories,
and then go back out and do it all over again. He became part of the British Expeditionary Force,
and not only brought people home, but led high risk missions into Nazi territory.
He built a network of allies and safe houses across France. Cole had a lot of connections,
and due to his fast thinking, and ability to charm, almost everyone he encountered liked him.
However, as the war progressed, he would end up betraying them all.
Soon after Cole first arrived in France he was caught stealing from one of his sergeants and
locked up. As German forces advanced, and the British had to retreat, Cole was left behind.
In the chaos that ensued, he managed to escape captivity. Harold Cole took on an
alias and returned to Allied controlled territory where he started fresh.
It was at this point that Harold Cole convinced British commanders that he
was a British Intelligence captain. It was during this time in his career
that he helped POWs and allied soldiers get out of Nazi controlled territories.
However, Cole was always looking out for number one. And even as he seemed to be helping people,
he was also stealing funds that were supposed to be used for the rescue missions.
Cole was a charismatic guy, and he convinced a lot of people that he was only there to help,
but that was only a partial truth. Although he aided people in getting out of Nazi controlled
France, he used most of the money given to him by the British government to live a life of luxury.
Think of how messed up that is. Harold Cole was taking money meant to save people’s lives,
and keeping it for himself
Cole would use the money to buy expensive champagne, cars, and prostitutes. He set up his
base of operations in Marseilles, France. It was here that British Intelligence got wind of what
Cole was doing. They couldn’t believe that someone would take money which had been reserved for
rescuing people from the atrocities of the Nazis. It was not only disgraceful, but disgusting.
British Intelligence officers decided it was time to put a stop to Harold Cole’s shady dealings. He
may have been considered a war hero by some, but if he was capable of stealing money that could be
used to save people’s lives, then he was more than capable of selling out the Allies to the Nazis.
And as British Intelligence dug deeper, they found that Cole wasn’t just skimming some
money off the top, he was stealing thousands and thousands of francs.
British officers were sent to Cole’s flat in Marseilles to confront him. They had a pile of
evidence to charge him with. When the officers approached him, Harold Cole immediately broke
down and begged for forgiveness. Just one look around his lavishly decorated apartment was
enough to condemn him. The officers threw him in the bathroom where Cole escaped out the window.
Now that British Intelligence was on to him, he needed to get out of Marseilles,
and lay low. In the cover of night Cole made his way through the city, making sure to steer
clear of any officers or military personnel who might be looking for him. One anecdotal account
reported that Cole was seen speeding out of Marseilles in a recently acquired car. Apparently,
the engine roared as he pushed the accelerator to the floor and raced out of the city.
From Marseilles Cole made his way to Lille, France. He must have driven through the
countryside weaving on and off of roads to avoid being spotted by Allied or Nazi troops.
Eventually, Cole made it to Lille, where he either turned himself over to the Nazis,
or was caught by them. Either way,
what Harold Cole did next would make him one of the most wanted deserters of World War II.
Cole began working for the Nazis and giving them intelligence on the secret recovery
missions being carried out by the British. He led them to the escape routes used to
smuggle out POWs to the Allied territories. He even provided the Nazis with names, maps,
and addresses of people who were involved in the rescue missions.
These were people whom Cole confided in while smuggling POWs out of Nazi controled areas.
In order for this network to work, he had to gain the trust of a lot of people.
And since he was saving lives, and delivering people out of the clutches of the Nazis,
the informants and members of the escape network trusted Harold Cole.
Unfortunately, that trust was misplaced, as Cole betrayed them all in an instant.
It is reported that Harold Cole gave up 30 typed pages worth of information to the Nazis. And the
crazy thing was, he was doing it all to save his own skin. He showed no remorse at all for the
lives he was destroying. There was no weight on his conscience for the murders he was involved in.
Cole was a coward, and would give up every ally he ever worked with if it meant saving his own
life. The speed at which the Nazis utilized Cole’s information was staggering. Only weeks after Cole
defected, people who were a part of the escape network in France began to be arrested by Nazi
soldiers. It was even reported that Cole would be with the Nazis whenever they took someone away.
The Allied sympathizers were interrogated for information. This included literal torture,
such as waterboarding and electric shocks. And it wasn’t just the members of the escape network
that Cole gave up, he also helped the Nazis capture British soldiers and undercover agents.
He would lead the Nazis to airdrop locations where they would capture Allied soldiers and agents.
And it seemed that there was nothing Cole wouldn’t stoop to. While in France, Harold Cole used the
money he was stealing to not only buy nice things for himself, but for his lady friends as well. He
would impress women with his expensive tastes and lifestyle. He also had a charismatic personality,
as he was able to fool British Intelligence for so long, and also other people in his life.
Unfortunately, he even tricked a French woman named Suzanne into marrying him and
birthing his child. The most messed up part about this relationship was
that when he was on the run from the Allies and joined the Nazis,
Cole used his wife in his double crossing plans. He tricked Suzanne into giving him
information about the members of resistant groups that she delivered messages to.
Cole told her he was actually a double agent working for the British. But in reality,
Cole was working for the Nazis. He kept up the ruse with Suzanne, getting several operatives
captured and killed until she figured out he was betraying her and the Allies. She fled
to Allied controlled France and cut all ties with her lying, cheating, husband.
As the war continued on, and Allied forces closed in on Germany, it became clear to Cole that if he
was caught, his fellow Brits would show him no mercy. Everyone knew which side of the war
Harold Cole was on. In 1944 Cole and the Nazi forces were pushed further and further back.
Millions of people died on both sides, unfortunately Cole was not one of them.
It is estimated by the end of the war Harold Cole was directly responsible for
the deaths of at least 50 men and women, while betraying somewhere around 150 people in total.
He may not have pulled the trigger himself, but he handed each one of those people over to the Nazis,
knowing full well what would happen to them.
Perhaps the most upsetting thing was that even after the war ended, Harold Cole was still not
brought to justice. In 1945 Cole took the alias of an undercover operative for British Intelligence
named Captain Mason. He was living in southern Germany and aided American forces as they made
their way through the country. Unsurprisingly, he was using his new position to once again live
a comfortable lifestyle. He apparently was now in possession of six cars, 200 gallons of gasoline,
500 bottles of wine, and enough ammunition to fight his own small war.
Cole even held parties for the leaders of the Allied forces.
He lived in a large house that had been confiscated from its owner.
Presumably because he had been a Nazi sympathizer, but you can never be quite sure with Harold Cole.
Keeping in character, Cole began working with Allied forces to find and arrest
Nazi soldiers. Some who we can presume were the very same people he was feeding intel to about
the Allies earlier in the war. He would gather information on where Nazi officers were hiding,
and help flush them out. It is documented that Cole killed at least one person during this time,
so it would seem he had no qualms with murdering people from either side of the war,
as he flip flopped back and forth between the Nazis and the Allies.
He would work for the devil himself if it meant saving his own skin.
Eventually his luck ran out when he sent a postcard to one of his ex-mistresses in Paris.
British Intelligence got a hold of the letter, and handed it over to investigators
responsible for bringing deserters to justice. A major from the division was
sent to Germany to collect Harold Cole who was unaware that he had been made.
The taskforce responsible for arresting Cole found him in his British uniform carrying a Thompson
machine gun and two pistols. They confiscated his weapons, and placed him under arrest. And
even though this would be the third time that the British had arrested Harold Cole during World War
II, he would escape yet again. At the prison he was being held in, Cole managed to get his
hands on an American uniform. He put it on and was able to convince the guards that he was a United
States sergeant. Cole walked right out the front door of the prison. And to add insult to injury,
he grabbed a typewriter on his way out saying that he was using it to write his memoirs.
The British were on the hunt again. Harold Cole had made them look like a fool too many times.
Then in 1946, almost a year after he had escaped from prison, British Intelligence received word
that a man matching Cole’s description had been seen in a Paris nightclub.
The French police were sent to arrest the deserter. They tracked him back to the
apartment he was staying in. The police quietly made their way up the stairs to Cole’s flat.
The old wooden steps creaked under their weight.
As the officers reached Cole’s floor, they were surprised to find him waiting in an open doorway,
pistol raised. He had heard them coming. Cole began to fire at the officers who returned
a volley of bullets. There was nowhere for Cole to run, so he emptied his gun,
but not before being shot multiple times by the French police. Blood ran down the front
of his shirt as he slid to the floor. When the police entered the room, Harold Cole was dead.
British Intelligence received word that the deserter had been killed. Much to their relief,
they would never have to deal with Harold Cole again. MI6 labeled Cole
as “the worst British traitor of the war,” who finally got what he deserved.
Now watch “What Happens When You Go AWOL?”
Or check out “Soldier Sentenced to Death Escapes, Becomes Jungle King || Insane True Story.”